Madd Max Has A Happy Halloween

The trick-or-treating crew.

Max headed out with his own group, put together by Luke, and Jess' heart broke just a little bit.

The crew's adults.

 The older girls, Margarita, Samantha and Maddie.

 The younger girls, Audrey and Isse.

Our block is upping it's game, from Sam's fog machine to this dino giving out candy.

Whose house also had an interactive display.

Madd Max Has A Halloween Morning

Sam carved Halloween pumpkins in the am.

Scared little guy.

Jess' fav - VOTE NOV 6.

The Halloween parade, where Max posed the entire way.

Glam.

Slappy Designs Her Halloween Costume

Her and her partner, The Invisible Man.

Her notes for Mimi:

Her dress:

- Red

- Sparkly

- A slit in the front

- Heels

Invisible Man:

- Top hat

- Black suit

- White flower in the lapel

- Bowtie

Meanwhile, Max's notes were as follows:

- I want to be Ash Greninja.

Jess sent Mimi this image:

Our duo.

Madd Max Hits Vegas

On the way back, the fam had planned to stop in Primm as a break.  Turns out Vegas was not much more expensive.

The 'rents kept it a surprise until turning off onto the strip.

The Treasure Island pool.

Noodle dinner in Paris.

Followed by a Bellagio fountain show.  Maddie's thoughts, "I thought Vegas would be like a penny arcade.  It's like 12 million penny arcades!"

Madd Max Hits Zion

More killer views at breakfast in the hotel.

Followed by even better ones on the Many Pools Trail.

Stunning.

 The entire hike consisted of different sized pools that had formed along the runoff path.

 Some filled with frog eggs.

 The fam reached the top of the hike in about 2 hours.  The entire walk up and down they never ran into another person.  This might have had something to do with the trail not being marked.  The All Trails app helped the fam find where to cross the highway and find the hidden stairs that led into the gully that began it all.

 Success.

Dead tree point.

And the favorite activity of Max - skipping stones.  This activity slowly began to change his rating of the hike - 0 stars to 4 1/2 stars.

Maddie's favorite activity - throwing large stones into all the pools.

Hikey.

Madd Max Lands In Zion

The drive from the Grand Canyon to Antelope Canyon to Zion was phenomenal.  There was so much to look at that Jess could not read or surf the inter webs for all 4 1/2 hours of it.  The evening ended with a dinner at Oscar's with Zion as the view.

The kids were very thrilled with these digs - a Marriott - who would've thunk it?

Max had his own reading light.

So this could happen on the other side of the bed.

Madd Max Hit Antelope Canyon

Yeah, this place.

This one - of many a desktop wallpaper.

Where you head into the canyon by waiting on these cool stairs.

And then heading down these also cool stairs.

 Kids in the canyon.

 Jess in the canyon.

Sam in the canyon.

Sand in the canyon.

Fam in the canyon.

See that small break in the rocks - below that is the canyon.  Where the random dude is, is where you exit.

And at the top - fossilized dinosaur tracks.

Madd Max Hits Horseshoe Bend

For a total of about 10 minutes due to an unanticipated time change.

Turns out Page, Arizona (yeah, that's right) is in Mountain Standard Time.  Turns out Antelope Canyon, which is in Page but on the Navajo Reservation is not.  Turns out, this made Jess think she lost an hour, causing the fam to rush to Antelope Canyon, and then upon realizing they had an hour, rush back to Horseshoe Bend to quickly get that stop in.

This was Maddie's favorite part of the trip.

Madd Max Enjoys The Sunrise

Jess left Sam and the kids sleeping to hit the sunrise at 6:45am.

She was following the map along the South Rim Trail, which turns out was not to scale.

The 3 mile surprise hike was well worth it, even though it was 2 miles longer then anticipated.

For the most part, it was just her, her coffee and these views.